Still got the feeling that $20 might be a "big ask" moment, and that it'll come down to $5/$10 whenever it actually boots out. Its achieved its goal of starting a convo around the whole thing.
I've heard it posited (on 4chan, so obviously YMMV) that both the $5 and $20 figures were being floated around (via leaks, of course) as a measuring stick to test whether people would accept it at all (even begrudgingly) and, assuming they would, what price point they would find "acceptable."
$20/mo makes verification a "businesses + professionals only" kind of deal. Randos are rarely going to pay that much unless Twitter is literally their whole life and they just can't help themselves (so admittedly there will be
some nobodies who pay). $5/mo reaches more into "bot filter + put your money where your mouth is" territory -- a more palatable figure for most people who care about their stupid checkmarks but enough to keep bot operators from bothering with it.
Attaching a monthly service fee of
any kind to the checkmark forces people to "wear it on their sleeve" that they're not just using the service, but also financially supporting it. Gonna make for a lot of awkward conversations if they implement this: "hey, you keep posting 'down with Twitter!' and such, but you've got a checkmark, which means you're paying the fuckers $5/mo for the privilege of calling for their destruction. What gives?"
Hell, even a measly $1/mo would probably be enough to chase off the bots but keep a good portion of the rest, and that'd still be enough to make it funnier than ever to shit on people who "hate" Twitter but directly contribute to its revenue.
Side note: great to be back on clearnet. Fuck trannies!
